The Open: Who won the 'unofficial Ryder Cup' at Royal Portrush?
Last Updated: 22/07/19 11:55am
One feature of the final two rounds of The 148th Open was the number of pairings on Saturday and Sunday that pitched European players against American players.
The list of two-balls at Royal Portrush on both days resembled, in places, the singles schedule on the Sunday of a Ryder Cup.
Obviously, The Open has a stroke-play scoring format rather than a match-play format, but who would have triumphed if these 'matches' had been won, lost or halved based on their scores around the Dunluce Links?
There were 16 match-ups between Europe and USA in the third round on Saturday and here are the scores with the European player listed first:
Francesco Molinari (72) beat Jason Kokrak (74)
Graeme McDowell (68) beat Bubba Watson (73)
Ashton Turner (77) lost to Charley Hoffman (70)
Paul Casey (73) halved with Kyle Stanley (73)
Eddie Pepperell (76) lost to Doc Redman (71)
Joost Luiten (71) beat Kevin Streelman (74)
Callum Shinkwin (75) lost to Stewart Cink (71)
Danny Willett (65) beat Aaron Wise (71)
Robert MacIntyre (71) lost to Justin Thomas (68)
Henrik Stenson (68) beat Webb Simpson (71)
Alex Noren (68) beat Dustin Johnson (72)
Tyrrell Hatton (71) lost to Matt Kuchar (69)
Jon Rahm (68) beat Patrick Reed (71)
Lucas Bjerregaard (74) lost to Tony Finau (68)
Justin Rose (68) lost to Brooks Koepka (67)
Shane Lowry (63) beat JB Holmes (69)
Saturday's result thus saw Europe take a narrow 8.5-7.5 lead with 11 more match-ups coming out in the draw for Sunday's pairings and the destiny of the 'prize' still very much in the balance.
And here are the 'results' for the final round with the lead changing hands on a number of occasions…
Callum Shinkwin (70) beat Jim Furyk (73)
Bernd Wiesberger (70) beat Kyle Stanley (71)
Joost Luiten (72) lost to Doc Redman (70)
Sergio Garcia (78) lost to Patrick Cantlay (74)
Mikko Korhonen (77) lost to Dustin Johnson (76)
Romain Langasque (78) lost to Kevin Kisner (73)
Tyrrell Hatton (69) beat Webb Simpson (74)
Alex Noren (74) beat Matt Kuchar (79)
Henrik Stenson (76) beat Jordan Spieth (77)
Jon Rahm (75) lost to Tony Finau (71)
Justin Rose (79) lost to Rickie Fowler (74)
But the end result was five victories for Europe and six for the USA, meaning the scores were level at 13.5-13.5 and the 'unofficial Ryder Cup' finished in a tie.
